Worst Moment (Block)
Batman: Defanged

The announcement of Wulin Warriors, a Chinese puppet show that has no animation at all. At least Lavendar Castle had animation in it.

The cancellation of Teen Titans, a strong and marketable series on the Toonami block.

The 4Kids-ization of the block, which included the Toonami debuts of the already-seen, edited One Piece and, to the dismay of many Toonami fans, Yu-Gi-Oh.

All these moments were enough to make a Toonami fan wonder why they've stuck around this long. However, these are all tame compared to the absolute worst moment in the block's history. In November 2005, Cartoon Network began to air live-action films, which is contradictory to the network's initial mission of being a home of cartoons. Hiding behind a BS excuse of "airing movies with cartoon-like themes that inspired today's animators," some people felt that this was a good thing that would, in the end, help out the network in the long run. However, people believed that this practice wouldn't extend to the venerable Toonami block.

On November 19, 2005, Toonami's original mission of airing the finest action cartoons on the planet was aborted with the Cartoon Network premiere of Tim Burton's Batman. Dubbed in the promos (which, by the way, weren't done by either the voice of Toonami Peter Cullen nor TOM's voice actor Steve Blum) as "the one that started it all," that is, the one that revamped the Batman franchise that begot the DC Animated Universe (which was missing in action at the time), Batman does have the honor of being the first TV-14 program to air on Toonami and promoted in the daytime whereas Adult Swim promos are limited to the time period in which Adult Swim is airing (still a stupid practice in my opinion). However, what was seen was, in fact, a film devoid of profanity and violence. It was a TV-PG edit with a TV-14 rating to fend off sensitive types. Profanity which would be acceptable on a TV-PG Adult Swim program were replaced with tame, non-profane edits. Certain violent scenes were edited completely out either by a physical edit or a strategically-placed commercial break, like when The Joker shoots Bob the Goon at point-blank range.

Perhaps if Batman aired intact, even with mild edits, maybe, just maybe, it would have been acceptable. Instead, this edit is exactly what kind of edits the network wants now and in the future, even on a block that's supposed to be aimed towards teens like Toonami is supposed to be. If Cartoon Network wants to attract newer audiences, they also need to find a way to keep the ones they have, and if this is what The Network wants Toonami to be, then it's going to be a rough time in the years to come.